Everyone have their experiences and what we do with it is totally up to us. Some store it secrets others share it with friends and turn it into laughs or life lessons. I've found what to with mine- write them as stories and give it to the world...these are my stories of the [year]

[definitions]

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Cloud Memory/ Check it Online/ Google Zeitgeist 2012

I remember a period there wasn't an easy access to the internet. There wasn't even an easily accessible medium to communicate with someone in remote areas- no cell phones. Also, satellite TV was a luxury reserved for the super rich. The rest of us had to keep in touch by writing letters, reading books and magazines. Celebrity magazines was MTV, E!, and CNN combined as they tried to cover as much as possible.

During that period, I would gist with friends and our discussion would focus on what we read- sports, music, and gossips- and as usual someone comes up with a questionable "fact". It would be one of those hard to believe statements. For example, someone one said the music group, Soul 4 Real, died in a plane crash. He supported his claim by saying he read it in a magazine. I had to believe, I mean, did I even have a choice or resources to prove him wrong? All I could do was hope to stumble upon a magazine to verify his claim, but till then I had to take it as being true.

Years later, smartphones were now the definition of what a cell phone should be. A device that summarised the journey of technology. Today, everyone with a smartphone could have internet access. An individual can't get away with questionable "facts" because a simple online search was a click away for disprove the claim. By the way, I googled Soul 4 Real and realised the only thing that crashed was their careers.

One positive about phones was It made arguments easier and shorter...and probably a bit reasonable. All I had to do was "check it online". For instance, If a friend were to claim famous individual A was more successful than B, a Google search would give results as links to other websites. I could type, "Is individual A more successful than B"...and could get over one million links as results.

"Check it online" became a common phrase. Whenever a debate was becoming too heated all we had to do was "check it online" to get it sorted.

It was great to have a smartphone handy BUT I've noticed a new trend that isn't a bit cool. It was ok if I debate with a friend how many Oscars the movie Lords of the Ring Triology won and conclude by checking it online. It seems no one wants to use their brain any more OR rather depend on their "cloud memory". It felt like, what is the use of memorising name of countries with their capital when it could be easily accessed online? Why memorise the route to a destination when there was Google map a click away?

I read an article on the most searched topics in Nigeria on Google 2012 (www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#nigeria/searches). There was a category, "How to..." which claimed the tenth most search topic in that category was "How to concentrate?"

By the way the overall most searched word was "JAMB". Lol...JAMB even had more search inquiry than "NNPC Recruitment".

Back to "How to" category. Number 4 on the list was "How to toast?" Like seriously, there are people who consult Google to learn how to toast a.k.a pick up girls. It seems not only do people refuse to memorise, they've moved ahead to rely on Google to learn what should come naturally. The second on that list was "How to romance?" It would be deceptive to think Nigerians were romantic in 2012, maybe we were BUT who googled it to find answers.

The number one was "How to love?" I never searched that for (personal) obvious reasons and find it difficult to believe a whole lot of people googled "how to love". It would have been a tad acceptable if it were "how to love lyrics" because it's totally unacceptable people learning how to love.

My conclusion, like I implied earlier, was that not only do people use the internet as an auxilary support for their memory. The internet was also adopted to perform supposed brain functions of reasoning and coming up with ideas.If you don't concur with my opinion, feel free to check it online.